The past few decades has produced explosive growth in the consumer markets for handheld communications devices such as mobile (“cell”) phones, pagers, two-way pagers, walkie-talkie devices, portable or wireless email devices including personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and the like. During operation, these types of devices receive incoming communication transmissions or calls that require the attention of the user. These communication transmissions can be in the form of incoming voice messages, data messages, cellular telephone calls, or other radio transmissions. Examples of message delivery and basic radio communications systems are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,804,334 and 6,421,544.
Many handheld communications devices are capable of being manually set so as to notify the user of an incoming call or event through either and audible, visual or vibration signal queue. Most wireless cell phones and pagers, for example, permit a user to set the handheld device to operate in one of a variety of alert modes. Commonly available alert modes include different ring tone settings, each with a selectable volume control, and a silent vibration mode. Many cell phones also include a “hands-free” or voice command setting that may be utilized when the user is driving an automobile, operating machinery, or is otherwise unable to manually operate the device.
One problem that arises, however, is that the user is constantly required to change the appropriate alert mode setting and adjust the volume controls of the handheld device depending on the environment that the user is currently in. By way of example, a person typically must turn their cellular telephones off, or place them in a silent or vibration mode, prior to entering a meeting room, hospital, courtroom, prison, or other similar location where noise disruptions or communications are prohibited. This poses a significant burden for the user, as they must be constantly mindful of their environment—including the appropriateness of their current location for receiving incoming transmissions—and vigilantly program their handheld communications device accordingly.
Another related drawback of prior art portable communications devices is that they may be inadvertently left in an old setting that is inappropriate for the user's new, current environment. For example, a wireless cell phone user may forget to change the alert mode setting of his telephone before entering a meeting or conference. In such a setting, the loud ring of an incoming call may be annoying and disruptive. On the other hand, a person who manually places their cell phone in a mute or silent setting prior to a meeting, and who forgets to change that setting after leaving the meeting, may miss important incoming calls for failure to be adequately alerted.
Various technologies have been developed in an attempt to ease the numerous burdens imposed on users of handheld communications devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,296 teaches a system and method of automatically configuring a portable wireless communications device when the device is connected to a hands-free control unit in a vehicle. The wireless communications device obtains information from the vehicle, such as data associated with a power loss for communicating through an external antenna of the vehicle, when it is connected to the control unit. Each of these elementary streams has a Packet Identifier (PID) that uniquely identifies that stream within the larger transport stream.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,052 discloses a hand-held cellular telephone system that incorporates a high resolution global positioning system (GPS) circuit into a cell phone unit. A cell base station communications server inhibits transmissions to the cell phone user when it is determined that the cell phone is in a specific restricted area based on GPS location information.
In another approach, U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,297 0teaches a system and method for indicating battery charging information to cell phone users when the cell phone is near an associated battery charger. The charger and cell phone are adapted to establish a communications link with each other when the cell phone is within a predetermined proximity range of the charger. The link allows either the charger or cell phone to analyze the status of the telephone's battery and, when appropriate, warn or remind the user to charge the battery based on the results of the analysis.
In still another improvement to cellular telephone technology, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0131206 discloses a telecommunications device that provides the user with a selectable digital audio equalizer to compensate for frequency-dependent attenuation or ambient noise in the received audio signal. The digital audio equalizer applies an audio frequency profile to the received audio signal, thereby attenuating some frequencies and/or amplifying others. The user selects which audio profile they prefer by manually pressing buttons on the cordless telephone. In this manner the user may select an audio profile which best matches the user's personal hearing spectrum.
Although these various techniques have helped to alleviate certain specific problems associated with portable communications devices, there still remains an unsatisfied need for a better and more comprehensive solution to the problem of alerting a user of a handheld communications device of incoming transmissions in view of ever changing environments.